A common problem encountered by many internet users is video re-buffering pauses during playback, or with content services using Adaptive Streaming Protocols (HLS, MPEG-DASH, etc.)—low quality of video viewing experience.
These Adaptive Streaming Protocols avoid video re-buffering by automatically reducing the video streaming bitrate (and subsequent quality/resolution) of the video, so that less data and bandwidth is required to stream the video.
Two main problems that harm the end user's viewing experience are mediocre video quality and frequent quality changes due to internet bandwidth congestion, which are especially visible to the human eye in video streams of High Dynamic Range (HDR) content.
The video players on devices or websites try to solve these issues by collecting a buffer of data and measuring this data's download speed in order to try to determine quality changes that may be required. Fluctuating network/communication link conditions may cause network bursts. This behavior can cause rapid bitrate (quality) changes.
These changes degrade the overall user experience and should be avoided.
U.S. Pat. No. 2013/0227158 describes a control unit which includes a determiner and a requestor. The determiner is configured to determine media-data rate in response to the network throughput and one of multiple fill ranges to which a level of a buffer corresponds, and the requestor is configured to request a media-file segment having the determined media-data rate. For example, such a control unit may be able to control the streaming of a video file in a way that reduces or prevents buffer underflows (i.e., video “freezes”), reduces the start-up delay, and that reduces the frequency of changes from one quality level (e.g., resolution) to another quality level, while streaming the highest-quality version of the video file that the data throughput allows.
There is need for a method that guarantees stabilizing the video quality by controlling the quality changes and gradually decreasing or increasing the adaptive video bitrate. The method guarantees minimal quality changes in order to avoid sharp decreases in quality while providing the highest possible quality for better viewing experience.